Good Enough to Dream in Upstate New York

If you were seeking a background for a successful baseball book, you would probably not choose Utica, New York.

This once thriving mill town sitting astride the Erie Canal has had a limited association with organized baseball during this century. Yet, in 1985 its baseball fortunes had a brief moment in the sun in distinguished author Roger Kahn’s best-selling Good Enough to Dream. It is the story of the 1983 baseball season in Utica when Kahn was president of the Utica Blue Sox of the New York-Pennsylvania League.

The Early Years

One of the first thrilling baseball seasons in Utica came in 1912. The New York State League pennant fight with Albany went down to the last day with Utica finishing in front by a mere half-game. However, 1913 saw a return to the familiar haunts of sixth place and the club remained an also-ran until 1917. With attendance at an all time low, the league dropped Utica and Harrisburg from its ranks on July 10, 1917. A futile attempt to re-enter professional baseball in 1924 failed in less than half a season when the last place New York-Pennsylvania League aggregation was transferred to Oneonta in early July.

The next baseball venture was much more promising, Ambrose McConnell, a Red Sox and White Sox third baseman during the early part of the century, spearheaded a successful drive to obtain membership in the Canadian-American League. He purchased the Auburn franchise in time for the 1939 season and the Utica Braves enjoyed four very prosperous years in the league. They drew a record league attendance of 105,394 in 1939 despite a last-place team and the Braves continued to draw well through the 1942 season. The city moved up to the Class A Eastern League at the close of 1942 when the Springfield, Mass., franchise was shifted to Utica.

The Young Whiz Kids

The new team was knows as the Blue Sox, although Utica fans could not see much improvement from the 1942 Braves. That first Eastern League team finished a dismal last, losing 103 games in the process. Good times were ahead, however, as the club became a farm team of the Philadelphia Phillies for the 1944 season.

The Phillies had long been a moribund member of the National League, but a new regime had taken over with the ownership of Bob Carpenter. His objective was to make the Phillies a competitive ball club, and the method he chose was to build up the farm system. Utica was one of the first clubs to join the Phillies organization. As a Class A club, the Blue Sox would get the best of the Phillies’ young players. One of the first of these fine young prospects was a 17-year-old blond catcher-outfielder from Nebraska, Richie Ashburn. He joined the Blue Sox in time for the 1945 season along with second baseman Ralph Caballero and pitcher Don Grate, a basketball star from Ohio State. This trio paced the Blue Sox to the first Utica pennant in 33 years. Managed by Eddie Sawyer, a former professor of physical education at Ithaca College, Utica waged a three-way fight with Wilkes-Barre and Albany to capture the flag by four games.

The best was yet to come.

The Blue Sox fielded the strongest club in Utica history in 1947, winning the Eastern League pennant by 10 1/2 games, and then enjoyed a victory over Albany to win the Governor’s Cup. A streak in June 1947 saw the club win 21 of 24 games to put the Sox into a lead from which they couldn’t be dislodged. The finished with 90 wins, an all-time Utica high. In spite of a limited capacity of 6,400 at McConnell Field, the Blue Sox drew a record city attendance of 110,785.

The Blue Sox of 1947 were to provide the foundation for the Phillies Whiz Kids of 1950. Ashburn was the star of the club. After missing the 1946 season for military service, he returned as a full-time outfielder. Hitting .362 and catching everything is sight in center field, Whitey would go to the National League in 1948 with no further minor league service. The double-play combination of shortstop Gran Hamner and second baseman Caballero would do the same. Catcher Stan Lopata, a .325 hitter with 88 RBIs would also make a strong contribution to the Phillies champions. Pitcher Lou Possehl, a 15-game winner in 1947, was the fifth member of the Blue Sox to join the Whiz Kids. And skipper Sawyer was able to take his Eastern league success to the majors.

It was all downhill for Utica after that great season. By 1949, attendance had fallen to 72,689 as the club skid to last place. And when a further decline to 57,137 took place in 1950, the Phillies moved the franchise to Schenectady. Baseball would not return to Utica until 1977.

A New Twist

American League expansions led to the formation of another Utica ball club, this one to be called the Blue Jays, after the parent Toronto expansion team, and a member of the Class A New York-Pennsylvania League. Class A was no longer the quality of the Eastern League of the 1940s. These Blue Jays were youngsters in their first or second year of professional baseball. Toronto provided Utica with interesting teams, but the preponderance of Latin American players on the club was not popular. Attendance dropped to 19,962 in 1980 and Toronto turned the franchise back to the league. It was the same old Utica story, but this one had a little different twist.

Miles Wolff rescued the Blue Jays from oblivion, revived that good old Utica name, the Blue Sox, and stocked the club with not-quites and maybes and managed to compete in 1981 and 1982. But there was a need for management and finances, both of which would be supplied by author Kahn and agent Jay Acton. Kahn invested $15,000, became the president of what resembled Captain Ahab’s Pequod more than a ball club, and in the process obtained the idea for a very good book. The Utica Blue Sox of 1983 won the New York-Penn League championship and their escapades are chronicled in expert fashion by Kahn. He made a lot of money on his book, and in the process stabilized the Utica situation. By 1985, the Blue Sox had a working agreement with — who else — the Phillies. Could the Whiz Kids of the ’90s be on their way?

The Outcasts

In 1983, the Blue Sox were not Whiz Kids. Far from it. The players that they acquired were a little older and more experienced than the prospects on the major league-affiliated clubs. Prospects was the magic word; the conventional wisdom of the ’80s is that you want to develop prospects for the majors. If you win at Little Falls, Oneonta or wherever, that is a bonus. This is a developmental league.

The Blue Sox had all been tried and found wanting by other organizations. Yet there were some very good athletes on the club. Don Jacoby, who served some as the designated hitter and attempted to play third base, hit a powerful .386 with a league leading 22 home runs. He was followed closely by sturdy outfielder Rock Coyle at .381, outfielder Barry Moss at .359 and first baseman Ed Wolfe at .338. Utica had a league high average of .313 and hit 96 homers in a 74-game season. Admittedly, the hitters were helped by a friendly right field fence at Murnane, but there were short fences in most of the parks, and no other club came close to these numbers.

The pitching staff had equally impressive records. Starters Mike Zamba and John Seitz were 12 game winners — convert that to 24 wins in a regular length schedule. They had both been cut by other organizations as had relief ace Roy Moretti. Moretti was the best pitcher in the league with a 7-2 mark and 2.18 ERA. His problem was that he was 27 years old, positively ancient in the New York-Penn League.

With experience on their side, the Blue Sox raced to an early seven-game lead by winning 26 of their first 32 games. Jacoby was hitting .463 while Seitz and Zamba each won his first five decisions. But then came the inevitable decline, and Utica gradually dropped back to the level of the rest of the league, finally falling out of first place on Aug. 21. There were only 12 days left to go and when the Little Falls Mets beat the Blue Sox, 7-5, to go up by a game and a half on Aug. 23, Utica looked to be in trouble. Rainouts created two straight doubleheaders at Oneonta and with six games in four days the Utica pitching staff would take a severe beating.

But the Sox rallied. They split two doubleheaders with Oneonta to move back into a first-place tie with the Mets, then took half a game lead with five games to go. The club had snapped out of its slump when Jacoby was moved to second base, his natural position, and Larry Lee went over to third. It looked good for Utica. The Blue Sox opponent for these last games was last-place Watertown. The first game was a breeze, 5-1, as Seitz and Moretti combined for the win. But then the two clubs battled to a 5-5 tie in a game stopped by rain. The suspended game was to be resumed the next night before Utica’s final home game.

Once again, the elements took over. After a three-hour wait, the umpires called the game costing the Blue Sox a big gate. Worst yet, league president Vince McNamara ruled that the two games must be made up the next day at Watertown — in effect, a tripleheader! The club made a valiant stand winning two of the three games. But Little Falls was winning its game to move into first place by one half game with one to go.

This was a major league finale to a fine pennant race. The Blue sox took an early 2-0 lead and Moretti carried it into the ninth. Meanwhile, Little Falls was losing at Oneonta. The Blue Sox survived one terrifying moment when Moretti threw a home run ball with two out, but he got the final out on a grounder. At Oneonta, the Mets’ rally fell short and Utica was the division champion. They soon became league champs by defeating Newark in the playoffs. Losing their only game at Murnane Field, the blue Sox took two games at Newark winning the finale 7-0 behind James Wright.

It would be nice to end this tale and say “they lived happily ever after.” Ever after would be life in the majors for the Blue Sox players. But sad to say, not one had reached that level through the 1988 season. No matter, they had their magic season that summer of 1983 in Utica.